S.E. Cupp: If Christie was directly involved in Bridgegate, he should resign

posted at 7:32 pm on January 8, 2014 by Allahpundit

Via the Daily Caller, are we at this point so soon? The story about his deputy’s e-mails broke this morning; he put out the requisite shock-and-disappointment statement a few hours ago; and now here’s a righty pundit already dropping the R-bomb on him, albeit conditionally. Half the Republicans I follow on Twitter are rolling their eyes that anyone in the media could be so exercised about petty hardball played by local politicians, especially when Bob Gates is busy accusing the president of the United States of sending men to die in a war he never believed in. Christie’s not in any imminent danger.

But look — at this point, given his emphatic denials that he had anything to do with the lane closings, what’s the alternative to resigning if a smoking gun emerges proving that he did? He’s not going to stand at the podium, cop to having lied baldfaced to the world about his role in punishing the public in order to retaliate against a political enemy, and then say, “Oh well, see you tomorrow.” His whole shtick is that he’s a straight talker who tells the truths that more polished politicians are too afraid to tell. He can’t admit to having lied to protect himself and then go back to business as usual. So what’s the alternative to resignation if he gets caught red-handed? Which, I guess, is another way of saying that the odds of him getting caught red-handed are verrry low or else his denials wouldn’t be so emphatic. If he was involved, the way this was done, I assume, is Christie telling a close aide to make it happen and then the aide telling Kelly to make it happen. That gives him plausible deniability. No paper trail, no muss, no fuss. At worst, if Kelly turns on him and claims that she’s confident the order came from Christie himself, he’ll dismiss it as fingerpointing by a bad employee who’s eager to rehabilitate her rep by telling the media what it wants to hear. He wouldn’t go all-in on denials if he had reason to believe he was exposed.

As for the rest of the clip, where Cupp teases out a scenario in which Christie resigns, becomes a martyr to his supporters for doing so(?), and then rebounds by running for president anyway, I don’t know what to tell you except that Tapper’s green room must include a mini-bar. Any pol who would abuse his power for such petty, egotistical reasons, lie about it repeatedly, and then actually step down in disgrace isn’t going to be considered for the most powerful job in the world. Especially when a big chunk of his own party’s base already disdains him.

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He’s not going to stand at the podium, cop to having lied baldfaced to the world about his role in punishing the public in order to retaliate against a political enemy, and then say, “Oh well, see you tomorrow.

I dislike Christie and hope he implodes but at the same time I note the ridiculous double standards going on. Christie should resign? Should Obama resign for directing the IRS to target conservatives? I mean, he met with the political affairs director of the IRS for several hours days before the predatory audits started. Could there be a more egregious violation of law and civil society than what he did? Should Hillary have resigned for her objective derelictions over Benghazi? (Nevermind the dozens of other felonies in her past). Get a grip.

Pushing this story is clear evidence the left believes Christie is the biggest threat to Hillary in 2016. Watch who the left pummels and who they treat with kid gloves. They like nice rich guys like Romney and leftover mavericks like McCain.

Christie isn’t the right’s salvation, but the left fears his in your face combativeness.

He’s not going to stand at the podium, cop to having lied baldfaced to the world about his role in punishing the public in order to retaliate against a political enemy, and then say, “Oh well, see you tomorrow.” His whole shtick is that he’s a straight talker who tells the truths that more polished politicians are too afraid to tell. He can’t admit to having lied to protect himself and then go back to business as usual. So what’s the alternative to resignation if he gets caught red-handed? Which, I guess, is another way of saying that the odds of him getting caught red-handed are verrry low or else his denials wouldn’t be so emphatic.

Pushing this story is clear evidence the left believes Christie is the biggest threat to Hillary in 2016. Watch who the left pummels and who they treat with kid gloves. They like nice rich guys like Romney and leftover mavericks like McCain.

Christie isn’t the right’s salvation, but the left fears his in your face combativeness.

Is that what she is? I thought she was basically a slightly less dim version of Meghan McCain.

Kensington on January 8, 2014 at 7:51 PM

Meghan and S.E. should do a show called “Give Up Republicans with Meg and S.E.” and they can have a daily segment of which part of the Republican platform they would dish. LOL! I kid….they don’t agree with any part of the Republican platform.

So dumb. I don’t believe for a second that he’d be that emphatic with his denial if anyone could prove he ordered it, and even so since when is this kind of thing something to resign over? As I said in one of the earlier threads about this, you know it goes on all the time, at every level of gov’t.

And I’m no Christie fan. Hope this episode makes him realize that no matter how much you play footsie with the Left/media, they will turn on you to clear the path for their Chosen One. This is only the first salvo.

I dislike Christie and hope he implodes but at the same time I note the ridiculous double standards going on. Christie should resign? Should Obama resign for directing the IRS to target conservatives? I mean, he met with the political affairs director of the IRS for several hours days before the predatory audits started. Could there be a more egregious violation of law and civil society than what he did? Should Hillary have resigned for her objective derelictions over Benghazi? (Nevermind the dozens of other felonies in her past). Get a grip.

rrpjr on January 8, 2014 at 7:46 PM

Obama shouldn’t be forced to resign. He should be in prison for the crimes he and his administration have committed. But the media has made it their duty to protect him from Day One and the Democrats and their base have no standards(look at how revered Bill Clinton is).

Since we conservatives have standards though with our elected officials, I agree with Sarah Elizabeth(I will NOT call her S.E.) that CRISTie should resign if it turns out he was behind this. Not only did he abuse the power of his office to target political enemies(and harm innocent people in the process), but he lied about it afterwards. I hope he wasn’t involved in any capacity, but I have a hard time believing he didn’t at least know about this at some point.

—”They are the children of (Democratic candidate for governor Barbara) Buono voters.”

—”Bottom line is he didn’t say safety.”

___

Sept. 13. Wildstein email to Kelly, apparently after a Port Authority executive from New York discovered the lane closures and halted them: “The New York side gave Fort Lee back all three lanes this morning. We are appropriately going nuts. (Port Authority chairman David) Samson helping us to retaliate.”

—Kelly: “What?”

—Wildstein: “Yes, unreal. Fixed now.”

___

Sept. 17. Sokolich to Baroni: “We should talk. Someone needs to tell me that the recent traffic debacle was not punitive in nature. The last four reporters that contacted me suggest that the people they are speaking with absolutely believe it to be punishment. Try as I may to dispel these rumors I am having a tough time.

“A private face-to-face would be important to me. Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to the errors of my ways. Let me know if you’ll give me 10 minutes.”

They’ll never prove Christie had anything to do with it. He’ll fire some people and look very executive-like doing it. He won’t resign. He’ll run in 2016.

rrpjr on January 8, 2014 at 8:01 PM

That won’t work if there is evidence he knew about it because the staffers he fired will spill the beans. That’s why Obama really never fires anyone for the scandals he had knowledge of. They get quietly transferred/promoted or they retire.

So what? A couple traffic jams? The Clinton’s personally destroyed everyone who dared speak out about Bill’s rapey habits. Kathleen Willey, Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Gennifer Flowers. Her attack dogs destroyed them all even though Monica proved them all right. I wonder what the great champion of women thinks about the personal destruction of sexual harassment victims.

These women along with the defenders of Benghazi were fed into the insatiable bloody maw of Hillary’s lust for power. And you want to talk to me about a traffic jam? Please. Longshoremen and transit worker unions will routinely do much worse to our transportation system just to make a political point.

We’re talking about CLOSING AN F’ING TRAFFIC LANE LIKE IT’S AS IMPORTANT AS F’ING UP THE COUNTRY’S HEALTH INSURANCE, for God’s sake! Seldom do you see anything as pathetic as the socialists’ scrounging to make a story out of a really stupid, really unimportant neighborhood story. If THIS is the best they can do ahead of 2016, the Dimmycrats are headed for extinction.

I’m strangely okay with the whole sordid affair. I’m glad he f**ked with his opponent -cause that’s that they do to us and I’m tired of always having to take it lying down- and I’m glad this is probably going to ruin the RINO’s political career.

Mark Levin is tearing his Kremeness apart. It’s been since September when we first heard of this and only now is he getting around to the bottom of it? Levin also wondered if now he’s realizing that all his democrat “friends” are only to happy to turn on him with their long knives out for him, yet not even a RINO friend has come to his support. Sucks to be him, ever eager to shaft the TEA Partiers and conservatives, now karma is turning out to be a b!tch.

Plus it goes back to what we were saying about all the Oboobi scandals. The “peons” take their cues from the leader, then act independently. They took the initiative to identify and punish the boss’ enemies.

It’s not like he used the IRS to target people who spoke up about him or anything… I mean that would just be MORE petty ‘hardball’ tactics… but no one dares come out and condemn that because they might be, you know, audited.

If you are all for allowing this sort of abuse of power, then where does it stop?

Even if Christie only hired petty and vicious idiots who could countenance using children to punish adults at several removes, that’s enough to require his resignation. Let’s not get so hung up on ‘Obama did it, too’ that we loose sight of the need to keep up standards for our guys, so that later we can enforce them on others.

It also took EMS seven minutes to reach an unconscious 91-year-old woman who later died of cardiac arrest at a hospital. Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”

Hey wasn’t there a mass rush to pore thru a certain Governor’s emails — 25,000 of them to find evidence of paybacks and punishment. Especially since knowing she had enemies on both sides of the political aisle? Yeah, that Governor sure was a bimbo.

And the MSM expended 100s of thousand dollars and thousands of man-hours to dig up dirt and came up with nada. If they expend as much on Krispy as they did Palin, brace yourself.

Like I said above earlier, the staff takes their cue from the boss. They don’t need to be told how to do their job. So this bridge-gate sure makes Krispy out to be a dumb leader and a thug.

It will be fun to see the fat boy sweat. We’ll also get to see how good a liar he is. That’s important. Lying well is the number one qualification now for high public office. If he lies really well, I can see his prospects improving.

We always think that by us calling for someone on our side to resign over something, that then the next time a DimocRat effs up, we feel more justified in calling for their resignation.

Only whenever a DimocRat is caught dirty and we call for them to resign, they always just fly us the bird, circle the wagons, and dare someone to do something about it.

No longer. I don’t give a rat’s butt what Christie did. He needs to fly the Dims and the Media the bird and tell ‘em if they can’t prove he committed some crime, to shut the hell up and move on, because he’s not going anywhere.

I’m through demanding that we spear our own, when the Dims NEVER, EVER do the same.

Levin also wondered if now he’s realizing that all his democrat “friends” are only to happy to turn on him with their long knives out for him, yet not even a RINO friend has come to his support. Sucks to be him, ever eager to shaft the TEA Partiers and conservatives, now karma is turning out to be a b!tch.

Plus it goes back to what we were saying about all the Oboobi scandals. The “peons” take their cues from the leader, then act independently. They took the initiative to identify and punish the boss’ enemies.

AH_C on January 8, 2014 at 8:26 PM

This in a nutshell is the danger to the Republican party when they start to act like Democrats.

It’s not about sides. It’s about getting the good people in office and the bad people out of office. That’s all. It’s that simple.

Just because Christie has an (R) next to his name does not make him perfect. Just as if he had a (D) next to his name, that wouldn’t make him the devil incarnate.

There are good and bad republicans, and good and bad democrats.

Admitting someone did something wrong, but refusing to call them to account for it because he’s on your “side” is shooting yourself in the foot. Sure, there’s republicans and democrats, but there’s a third side – the public, united states citizens. Us. Christie screwed with us, and you should be on OUR side.

I will never again call for someone on our side to resign unless they’re found guilty of a crime of some kind. The double standard has to be defeated. And as long as we’re playing by a different set of rules than the Dims, it never will be.

But your solution to the double standard – whether it exists or not – is to say, that’s wrong, lets also be wrong. You recognize the right thing to do, and choose not to support it due to stubbornness.

It’s not about sides. It’s about getting the good people in office and the bad people out of office. That’s all. It’s that simple.

Just because Christie has an (R) next to his name does not make him perfect. Just as if he had a (D) next to his name, that wouldn’t make him the devil incarnate.

There are good and bad republicans, and good and bad democrats.

Admitting someone did something wrong, but refusing to call them to account for it because he’s on your “side” is shooting yourself in the foot. Sure, there’s republicans and democrats, but there’s a third side – the public, united states citizens. Us. Christie screwed with us, and you should be on OUR side.

triple on January 8, 2014 at 8:46 PM

Yep, you’re right, there are good (R)’s and bad. But unless the (D)’s start playing by the same rules and start rooting out and calling for their corrupt and dirty examples to resign, I’m not either.

If Krispy committed some crime, fine, charge him and convict him. At that point I’ll be the first in line saying he needs to resign if he’s still in office. Short of that though, nah not feeling the resign thing.